NEW: WPI hires first female president in school's history

Tuesday

Jan 21, 2014 at 10:30 AM

Posted By Walter Bird Jr.

Eight months after former president Dennis Berkey announced his retirement, trustees at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) have found his replacement - and she is, quite literally, a rocket scientist. She is also the first female president in WPI's history. Dr. Laurie Leshin, a geochemist and space scientists who has worked for NASA, will become the engineering school's 16th president.

“Laurie Leshin is impressive by any measure,” says Trustee Chair Warner Fletcher. “In addition to bringing exceptional academic credentials from some of our nation’s leading universities, Laurie also brings tremendous experience and expertise from her time spent in leadership positions at NASA. She is an academic who understands the role of – and the potential for – academia in the larger world. Laurie has the rare capacity to work as successfully with students and faculty as she does with the White House and Congress. She is well positioned to take WPI to an even higher level of excellence and prominence. We are proud to have her at the helm of this fine university.”

Leshin was chosen after a six-month, nationwide search that started last August. According to a press release, she was one of about 200 applicants and was the unanimous first choice of trustees and becomes the first woman to head the university in its nearly 150-year history.

She will start July 1.

Leshin most recently served as Dean of the School of Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), where she oversaw six departments, more than 30 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, six research centers and more than 250 faculty and staff. Among her accomplishments were establishing new interdisciplinary research directions and opportunities, implementing significant curriculum innovations and establishing fund-raising initiatives. While at RPI, Leshin continued her research and national service by working as a funded science team member for the Mars Curiosity Rover mission, being appointed by President Barack Obama to the Advisory Board for the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum and as a member of the Advisory Board of the US Merchant Marine Academy, to which she was appointed by former Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

Leshin joined Rensselaer after six years as a senior leader at NASA. She joined the agency in 2005 as director of science and exploration at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where, as the head of NASA’s largest science organization, she was responsible for the strategic management and organization of more than 300 PhDs working in fields ranging from high-energy astrophysics to climate change. In 2008 Leshin was promoted to deputy center director for science and technology at NASA Goddard, a center with 3,200 employees and a $3-billion budget, responsible for the strategy, planning and implementation of 50 earth and space flight projects. During that time, she initiated and expanded partnerships with universities, with industry, and with other government organizations. As the senior scientist at NASA Goddard, she communicated NASA achievements and plans to numerous and diverse audiences, including a presentation to Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

In 2010 Leshin was tapped to join NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C., the organization responsible for future NASA human spaceflight activities. As deputy associate administrator, her work involved daily oversight and planning for the implementation of the largest proposed shift in human spaceflight activities since the end of the Apollo program. She and the associate administrator oversaw a budget of $4 billion and a nationwide workforce of more than 15,000; she also worked extensively with Congress, the White House, industry, and the public to communicate NASA’s plans and influence support for – and authorization of – its vision and programs. Leshin sought to catalyze a worldwide space exploration movement by engaging with international space organizations, and through oversight of development of new technologies and robotic missions–including commercial capabilities for low Earth orbit transport and new technologies that would allow for humans to travel destinations deeper in the universe.

Before joining NASA, Leshin was a scientist and professor at Arizona State University (ASU) from 1998 to 2005. Her successful research program focused on geochemical analysis of meteorites, the origin of the solar system, water on Mars, and astrobiology. In 2001 she was named the Dee and John Whiteman Dean’s Distinguished Professor of Geological Sciences, and went on to help lead the development of the first-of-its-kind interdisciplinary School of Earth and Space Exploration at the university. Leshin also served as director of the Center for Meteorite Studies at ASU, which houses the largest university-based meteorite collection in the world.

Leshin's academic career started in 1994 at UCLA as a University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Earth and Space Science. She spent four years at UCLA, where she was also named a W. W. Rubey Faculty Fellow.

Leshin earned a BS in Chemistry from Arizona State University in 1987. From there, she studied at the California Institute of Technology, where she earned both an MS in geochemistry in 1989 and a Ph.D. in geochemistry in 1994.

In 2004 she received the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, and in 2011 she received NASA’s Outstanding Leadership Medal. She is a recipient of the Meteoritical Society’s Nier Prize for her research. She has served on the Board of Directors of Women in Aerospace, the Council of the American Geophysical Union. The International Astronomical Union recognized her contributions to planetary science by naming asteroid “4922 Leshin.”

She is married to Jon Morse, PhD, an astrophysicist, and has two stepsons.

Interim WPI President Phil Ryan says Leshin brings "academic credentials, extensive administrative leadership experience, and superb communication skills, she also brings vision and energy and warmth that will inspire faculty, staff, and students. I expect our university to thrive under her leadership.”

Leshin calls WPI a leading innovator in engineering, technology and science education and describes it is a model for other universities.

"WPI’s integration of science and engineering with the social sciences, humanities, arts, and business is notable for the truly holistic approach it takes to educating tomorrow’s leaders," Leshin says. "I am impressed by the excellence and dedication of the faculty and their scholarship, and I am inspired by the students--by their vision and the work they do through WPI’s interdisciplinary, project-based curriculum. I am truly energized by the prospect of getting to know the members of the WPI community and their aspirations, of working together to expand WPI’s impact, and raising the profile of this great university. I look forward to many productive years of collaboration, and I can’t wait to get started.”

Leshin succeeds Berkey, who served as president for nine years. Ryan has served as interim president since June last year. He is a former chair of the Board of Trustees.